WaPo/Mike Wilbon: "No Colts? No Patriots? No Way!"

[Penndems]

By Michael Wilbon

Monday, January 16, 2006; Page E01

You can go another 20 years and never see a final six minutes of football like that again. In fact, it was more theater than football, from the bizarre officiating blunder on a Pittsburgh Steelers interception to the irony of the Indianapolis Colts' "idiot kicker" (to quote Peyton Manning) missing his first field goal of the year at home to leave the NFL's best team a forlorn loser.

<snip>

The sight of place kicker Mike Vanderjagt trying to save the Colts' season, with 21 seconds left and his team down 21-18, was a study in irony. It was Vanderjagt who said a couple of years ago that the Colts would never win with Tony Dungy as coach and Peyton Manning as quarterback, a remark that led Manning to call Vanderjagt an "idiot kicker who got liquored up and ran his mouth off."

<snip>

It's an unimaginable recipe that went into the final minutes of Colts-Steelers, right down to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger perhaps winning the game for the Steelers by making, of all things, a tackle on a Colts cornerback, Nick Harper, who had been cut in the knee the night before, reportedly in a domestic accident, and couldn't finish what could have been a game-winning, 93-yard return of Jerome Bettis's first fumble of the entire season.

On some level, the NFL is probably lucky the Steelers won, considering that with minutes to play and the Steelers ahead 21-10, the officials made an unforgivably bad call, even after having the benefit of replay, to take away a clear interception by safety Troy Polamalu that should have effectively ended the game, what with the way the Steelers were running the ball with a lead.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/15/AR2006011501052.html

[joeybee12]

1. I was trying to recall the feud between Peyton and Mike...

...hee-hee.

[fishwax]

9. that's good stuff

:rofl:

I'd forgotten all about those comments

:rofl:

[joeybee12]

15. You know, my response #11 below was supposed to be a response

to your post here. Wonder what I did wrong???!!!

[fishwax]

17. I see it now

and responded. (and agreed.)

[qanda]

2. I'm still trying to figure out that interception call

I wonder if the league will issue a statement regarding it.

[Penndems]

3. Me, too

That was just unbelievable. The whole world saw Palomalu make that catch.

What was Morelli smoking, for crying out loud?

[trotsky]

7. Tom Jackson, on NFL Primetime last night,

didn't go into a big explanation, but said there were some oddball rules on the books about establishing possession with a knee down. I too would like some clarification on that.

[fishwax]

10. i'd be curious for an explanation

that was total BS.

[joeybee12]

11. Peyton's comments were esepcially class-less....

...yet still the meida think he's a classy kind of guy.

[fishwax]

16. I agree. He always gets the media pass

and has, ever since he was the golden boy at tennessee. Didn't he have to apologize for his comments once there, too, after dogging out his teammate's performance? I seem to remember something like that, but can't place it exactly.

I used to have a theory about Manning, that he was sort of a "Great White Hope" at QB, since he came in amongst a wave of talented black QBs (McNabb, Culpepper, McNair a little before him, and Vick a little after him). Maybe that's off-base, but he certainly seems to get a media pass for some reason (although that's changed a bit after this weekend's game and comments :))

[joeybee12]

18. Manning probably gets a pass the way Bush gets a pass...the dumb-fuck

American media is awestruck by royalty and wealth--they don't have a democratic bone in their collective body--they love to kiss up people they think are better than others due to wealth and breeding.

[fishwax]

19. yeah, very good analogy

though (and i'm clearly no fan) I will admit that manning is a MUCH better qb than bush is a president :rofl:

but yeah, the football royalty crap is definitely a part of what gets him a pass. i get so sick of that crap. has anybody in the family ever won a meaningful game?

[joeybee12]

20. In answer to your last question--no, and none of them probably

ever will.

Archie is obviously retired, Peyton is obviosuly a choker, and I really believe Eli is vastly over-rated--I know that last one is sacriligeous among rabid Giants fans here, but he hasn't proved really anything yet.

[fishwax]

12. they've now admitted that they made the wrong call

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=215&topic_id=31752&mesg_id=31752

[JVS]

14. They just did

[Bluzmann57]

4. The officials had a bad day all the way around

There was a "no call" on an obvious offside/lining up in the neutral zone earlier in the game. The Colts were lined up offsides, the Steeler guy hit one of them and a flag was thrown. The officials huddled and decided that there was "no call". So why in the hell did they throw the flag? Maybe they were trained in Conference USA and have no concept of rules.

[PDittie]

5. They didn't throw the flag.

Both teams stood up and started pointing and waving and yelling, basically stopping play themselves. I don't know who eventually initiated contact but it was several seconds after the initial confusion.

The refs were lost all day.

[trotsky]

6. Faneca moved.

Replays showed that Faneca flinched ever so slightly. The Colts over-reacted, screaming and pointing, but no official saw Faneca, so they were left with "no call." On one of the replays, you could see how the line judge may have had his view of Faneca blocked by a TE.

Bad situation all around. Should be something where the booth can take a quick look at the replay to see if there was really a false start.

[timber84]

8. Funny I havn't seen a replay of that, watched espn blitz and news

all night sun. all I remember was Dan"the Dick" Deirdorf's comments about it during the game. I definitely would go on anything he said.

[trotsky]

13. From the article you posted on the other thread:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/football/2020AP_FBN_Steelers_Colts_Wrong_Call.html

Replays appeared to show Alan Faneca barely flinched. But Steelers coach Bill Cowher argued the Colts made contact with the linemen, which would have forced an offside call and a first down.

Bad calls (and non-calls) abounded in that game. There have been too many in the playoff games I've watched - aren't these crews supposed to be the best of the bunch?